CBK releases Shs 7.4 billion to support fight against Coronavirus<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has today released Shs 7.4 billion to support Government efforts to contain the spread of Coronavirus in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking at State House, Nairobi, during President Kenyatta’s meeting with the private sector, CBK Governor Dr Patrick Njoroge said the money was gained from the mop-up of the old 1000 shillings bank notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs you recall \nin September last year we concluded the demonetization of our currency \nrelating to our old generation one thousand bank notes. That matter was \nconcluded and as a result of that, Shs 7.4 billion worth of bank notes \nnever came back to the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat money would have been held \nby people who, for whatever reason, did not want to subject themselves \nto the checks that were in place. So most likely this was money that \nmight have been illicitly acquired through the various channels that we \nhave talked about in other forums,\u201d the CBK Governor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Njoroge said the bank is giving back the money to boost the government\u2019s efforts to combat the Coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Kenyatta thanked CBK for the contribution and directed Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani to ensure the money is used to support Kenyans to overcome the current health crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat money goes to help our health facilities and our health workers,” the President said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added: \u201cThat again is something we appreciate and this is what I mean when I say Kenyans working together can achieve miracles.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the meeting, the President announced a further Shs 1 billion allocation by the Government for hiring of more health workers needed to increase the country’s capacity to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n He said the additional funds will ensure the government brings on board\n enough manpower to support those already in the field working to save \nlives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President’s meeting with the private sector \nrepresentatives discussed a raft of other measures being taken to \ncushion the country from the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n Key among the interventions is an announcement by the Head of State \nthat outstanding VAT refunds and pending bills would be settled within \n30 days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President said VAT refunds and settlement of pending bills will help improve cash flow and keep businesses afloat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n \u201cCritically, we all recognize that the volume of business has gone \ndown. We need to ensure that we have cash flow to be able to keep \nourselves afloat as we go through these trying times,\u201d the President \nsaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the Government had lifted a ban on its entities \nfrom holding conferences and seminars in private hotels so as to keep \nthe hospitality sector vibrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs you are well aware we had put\n a ban on government officials holding meetings in hotels and said only \ngovernment institutions are the ones to host various seminars by \ngovernment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Again we have lifted that temporarily until this is \nover so that our hotel beds get occupancy and you in turn are able to \nkeep your workers employed,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once again, the \nPresident thanked the media for its leading role in information \ndissemination and public health education on the Coronavirus pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the media had distinguished itself as a valuable partner in efforts to contain the spread of the virus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n Following yesterday’s directive, the Head of State said the Government \nhad released 400,000 litres of ethanol, impounded by the multi-agency \nteam on contraband goods, to oil companies for the blending of hand \nsanitizers to be distributed free of charge to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On its\n part, the private sector, through the Kenya Private Sector Alliance \n(KEPSA) Chairman Nick Nesbitt and CEO Carole Kariuki, committed to \ncontinue protecting Kenyan employees against job losses and safeguarding\n SMEs from the adverse effects the current crisis by ensuring business \nand supply chain continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The private sector further committed\n to prioritize the health and safety of employees, communities and \nhealth workers through increased Corporate Social Responsibility \nactivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting was attended by several Cabinet Secretaries among other senior Government officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n Earlier, the President held talks with representatives of the Export \nProcessing Zones (EPZ) Apparel and Textile Sector during which he \ncommended the sector for their efforts in minimizing job losses during \nthis crisis period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CBK releases Shs 7.4 billion to support fight against Coronavirus The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has today released Shs 7.4 billion to support Government efforts to contain the spread of Coronavirus in the country. Speaking at State House, Nairobi, during President Kenyatta’s meeting with the private sector, CBK Governor Dr Patrick Njoroge said the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84,169],"class_list":["post-1790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-coronaviruskenya","tag-cbk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1790"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1793,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790\/revisions\/1793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodmorningkenya.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}